‘The Walking Dead’ Season 10 Premiere Will Remind You Why It’s the Biggest Show on TV

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The Walking Dead

In case you’ve forgotten, The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere will remind you why it’s still one of the biggest shows on TV. From the jaw-dropping opening moment, to a final, quiet ominous shot, Walking Dead comes out swinging with renewed purpose throughout the episode, “Lines We Cross.”

A lot of that can most likely be pinned on Angela Kang, who was promoted to showrunner in Season 9 and wrote the season 10 premiere. Those Season 9 episodes were the strongest in recent history, as the various communities moved on from the long war between Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) to figure out what was next. It was a season unafraid to shake things up, from the dual departures of Rick and Maggie (Lauren Cohan), the addition of a multitude of characters, and the introduction of a terrifying new threat in the form of The Whisperers, humans who wear zombie skin and are led by the merciless Alpha (Samantha Morton).

Season 10 picks up on this momentum and runs with it, mixing in a Mad Max vibe that finally propels Walking Dead firmly into the realm of sci-fi (though don’t worry, Negan doesn’t get a robot buddy or anything). Still reeling from an attack by The Whisperers months earlier that left our heroes and the zombie-skin clad villains at a détente, the group isn’t resting, they’re organizing. Having gone through multiple wars, the legacy cast — including a bitter Michonne (Danai Gurira), and one-handed Aaron (Ross Marquand), who has partially inherited Rick’s role from the comics — is busy getting the newer recruits ready. A thrillingly staged, extended opening set on the beach is filmed by director Greg Nicotero as a sequence right out of Troy, or the first act of Wonder Woman. As the group trains with wave after wave of the undead, things go predictably wrong — but this time, they’re all armed and ready.

It’s a far cry from where the show started with a ragtag group of survivors living day to day. Now they have not just one society, but multiple settlements, all working together to make the world safe for the next generation. And a good portion of the episode focuses on that, how someone like Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), once the feral cat of the show, sleeping on porches and eating roadkill, is solely focused on making sure the children are not just kept alive, but are ready to lead some day themselves.

There’s internal conflict, of course, and plenty of lamenting about how the world has changed. This is Walking Dead, after all, and in terms of talking about how times are changing the residents of Alexandria would probably get along well with the downstairs staff of Downton Abbey. Michonne in particular is still dealing with the departure of Rick a decade earlier, in the timeline of the series. It’s a curious thing to watch as a viewer, as she thinks he’s dead while we know he’s just gone off to do a couple of movies. It’s a solid arc Gurira can dig her teeth into, though, and it does point to how her lack of anchoring may lead to Michonne’s own departure before this season is over.

And interestingly (perhaps) for fans of the comics, Carol (Melissa McBride) takes the place Michonne did in the books, sailing the seas and needing a renewed purpose and mission in the wake of losing her surrogate son in the Whisperer attacks. As the show continues to move forward, for longtime fans there’s prodigious pleasure in a subplot involving Carol and Daryl wandering around in the woods, and taking a ride on Daryl’s motorcycle. Ride with Norman Reedus this isn’t, but after ten years Walking Dead has more than earned the nostalgia.

It’s where the episode veers from the past that it’s most exciting, though. Long ago Walking Dead took prodigious flack for almost routinely killing its characters of color. Ten seasons in, the most emotionally charged scene in the episode is shared between Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Kelly (Angel Theory), two actors of color, told nearly entirely through ASL. In fact, the entire cast looks a lot more like the world outside our window, from the kids to the adults. Just like how Fear the Walking Dead recently added the franchise’s first Jewish character, this should be noted and applauded. It leads to more modes of storytelling, and (not to get all business) points to the long-term health of the franchise.

Ultimately, though, Walking Dead lives and, er, dies, on its outrageous zombie kills. I’m pleased to say that 10 seasons in, Greg Nicotero and company still manage to keep it fresh, even as the undead get goopier over time. There are two sequences in particular that bookend the episode that show off the continued excellence of the effects team, and the actors who portray the walkers.

To that point, The Walking Dead truly is one of the last of the old guard, big “watercolor” shows with moments people can talk about the next day. Game of Thrones is done as is (on the opposite end of the spectrum) Big Bang Theory. It’s down to Grey’s Anatomy and Walking Dead, and that’s pretty much it. With this premiere episode, it’s clear the show isn’t resting on its past glories; Kang and company are willing to let the show grow, and morph and change. “Lines We Cross” is gross, scary, and big budget storytelling the way only Walking Dead can do. Season 10 is already off to a promising start; bring the rest of it on.

The Walking Dead will return Sunday, October 6 at 9/8c on AMC. Subscribers to AMC Premiere will be able to watch the episode a week early, on September 29 at 9/8c.